1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card-edge connector capable of restricting a gap of a predetermined value between every pair of contact portions in a group of contact terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an edge board mounted to an electronic equipment has a terminal group (electrode group) at one end thereof on single-sided or doubled-sided surfaces and is electrically connected a mother board or others, for example, via a card-edge connector. Such a card-edge connector is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,558, which comprises a base section having a slot for the attachment/detachment of the terminal group of the edge board, a contact terminal group formed in an inner surface of the slot for electrically establishing connection with the terminal group of the edge board, and a latch mechanism for holding the edge board mounted to the slot and selectively pressing one end of the edge board in the detachment direction so that the edge board is apart from the contact terminal group.
The latch mechanism includes a pair of hook members for moving one end of the edge board in the attachment/detachment direction. Each of the hook members is provided for rotation at the both end of the slot in the base section, respectively and has a nib portion entering the slot and engageable with at the edge of one end of the edge board.
Thus, when the respective hook members are made to rotate in the directions opposite to each other, one end of the mounted edge board is pushed by the nib portion in the direction detachable from the contact terminal group. At that time, the respective hook member is made to move rotationally against the elastic force of the contact terminal group nipping one end of the edge board at a predetermined pressure.
Also, gap-adjustment partition walls are provided within the slot, for properly maintaining the gap between the respective contact portions of the contact terminal group for the purpose of obtaining a suitable pressure for holding one end of the edge board in the contact terminal group as well as facilitating the attachment/detachment operation of the edge board relative to the card-edge connector. As disclosed, for example, also in U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,200, the gap-adjustment partition walls are provided so that a predetermined gap is created between every pair of contact portions of the contact terminal group when the edge board is not inserted into the slot. Accordingly, the gap-adjustment partition walls restrict the elastic displacement of all the contact terminal group so that the contact portions of the contact terminal group in the base section are not closer to or more apart from each other than a predetermined distance.
The above-mentioned edge board tends to be smaller in size because of the miniaturization of the electronic equipment on which the former is to be mounted. In such a case, it is required that the downsized edge board is also attachable and detachable without changing a dimension of the base section in the card-edge connector and an arrangement length of the contact terminal group in the slot.
However, for prolonging a dimension of the nib portion of the respective hook member to be inserted into the slot as a width of the edge board becomes narrower as well as selectively inserting the nib portion into the slot, it is necessary to cut out opposite ends of the gap-adjustment partition wall. Thus, there might be a risk in that a gap between the contact portions of the contact terminal group corresponding to a clipped portion in the gap-adjustment partition walls becomes improper.